Power Driven Podcast

If you run a modified diesel truck, a roadside breakdown is not a matter of if. It is a matter of when. Todd, Will, and Myer dig into their best and worst breakdown stories to help you prepare for the inevitable before summer hauling season gets here.

The guys cover everything from blown intercooler boots and dead alternators to turbo failures, low oil pressure, and full engine carnage. Most of their stories happen while hauling a trailer, which is exactly when you do not want to find out your diesel performance build has a weak link. Some of these repairs got made on the side of the road with whatever was on hand. Others required a little creativity, a few phone calls, and people willing to help.

Along the way they hand out practical tips that apply to any diesel truck build, whether you are running a built second gen Cummins, a 12 valve, a 24 valve, or a common rail. Good intercooler boots, tight clamps, a tire plug kit, spare fluids, and a basic tool kit can solve a surprising number of problems that would otherwise leave you waiting on a tow truck.

The bigger takeaway is that preparation before a trip matters more than any roadside fix. Check your tires, top off your fluids, inspect your battery terminals, and make sure you have the right tools before you leave the driveway. Machines break. The guys who handle it best are the ones who saw it coming.

If you haul, race, or travel long miles in a diesel truck, this one is worth your time.

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Shop everything mentioned in this episode at PowerDriven.com, including intercooler boots and everything else you need to keep your diesel truck on the road when it matters.

Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com
0:00 Intro and episode overview
0:45 UCC context and Myer's trip to Indianapolis
2:00 The Mac: Ford Aero Max with 855 Cummins mechanical PT pump swap
4:15 Coming home from UCC with a blown turbo in the Midwest
5:30 Will Terry Fabrication: stovepipe turbo fix with Ace Hardware parts
7:55 Garrett 475 swap, T6 flange mismatch, and getting over the Rockies
9:45 Intercooler boots: when they blow and why it happens
12:00 Boot maintenance tips, clamp torque, and upgrading before you haul
13:15 Alternator trigger wire failure and diagnosing on the fly
21:00 Broken Smith Brothers pushrod strands the family truck
28:30 Alternator failures: 6.0 Power Stroke and the Las Vegas story
30:45 Montana breakdown: getting a store employee to deliver an alternator roadside
35:00 Low oil pressure on the 12 valve, loose turbo drain bolt, flagging down semi drivers
39:15 Cracked billet flex plate discovered on the way home
44:00 Carrying spare fluids, radiator hose stories, and what to keep in the bed
45:45 Transmission cooler bypass trick with a pair of pliers
46:45 Tire plug kit and 12-volt compressor: the tools that solve simple problems fast
48:00 Boonie kit concept and the pantyhose serpentine belt story
49:20 Always carry a flashlight
49:45 The value of a good friend network when you are stranded
51:55 Tyson borrows the truck and puts holes in the block
55:30 Pre-trip checklist: tires, spare, fluids, spline lug socket, battery terminals

Buying someone else's unfinished project truck sounds like a shortcut, but it can turn into one of the most expensive decisions you make. Todd, Will, and Myer break down exactly what to watch for when you're rolling up to a used diesel truck with a head full of optimism and a wallet that needs to survive the trip.

The guys get real about why sellers abandon projects in the first place, and why that reason matters more than the deal itself. Money, time, boredom, a problem they couldn't solve, all of it changes what you're actually inheriting when you hand over the cash. Not every truck listed with cool parts is worth what the seller thinks it is, and not every deal is what it looks like on the surface.

A big part of the conversation is the physical inspection. Pop the hood and you can tell a lot fast. Firewall insulation and hood insulation are some of the first things to check because they tell you how many times someone has been in there and whether they cared when they put it back together. Wiring is another one. If you see bare twisted wires and electrical tape where a proper loom should be, that truck is telling you something and you should listen.

The guys also talk through the secondary market and the reality of flip sellers on classifieds who buy trucks cheap, patch a surface problem, and resell without any real knowledge of the vehicle history. Knowing the difference between a guy who built something and a guy who bought it to move it is one of the most useful skills you can develop when shopping for a project.

They cover transmission talk specific to Dodge trucks, including what a shop-claimed "heavy duty" or "towing" transmission actually means versus a real built trans, and why you need to ask the right questions before you assume the drivetrain is sorted. For Cummins trucks from 2019 and up, there is also a conversation about the hydraulic roller lifter design and the failure concerns that make some buyers think twice about the newer platform when they are looking for something they can actually work on and source parts for.

The episode closes with the bigger question every buyer has to answer honestly before they shop: are you someone with the tools and knowledge to take on whatever you find, or are you someone who needs to start with a cleaner slate and let a shop handle the build. Neither is wrong, but getting that answer wrong before you buy can cost you a lot more than you saved.

If you are looking to pick up a diesel project truck, pull up a chair because this one is worth hearing before you write that check. Subscribe on YouTube and follow on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

Part two of the engine building series picks up right where things left off, covering everything from bearing installation all the way through first fire and ring break-in. If you are building a Cummins or planning to, this is the episode you do not skip.

Todd, Will, and Myer break down the full Morley bearing lineup, covering P, H, and V bearings and which one belongs in which build. Coated bearings, bearing installation technique, and why cleanliness between the bearing and saddle matters more than most guys realize all get covered in detail. Plastic gauge gets a thorough breakdown too, including an honest story about what happens when you misread a dial bore gauge.

Wrist pin clip orientation, rod direction by platform, crank galley cleaning, and which way rods go in a 12 valve versus a 24 valve versus a VP44 are all walked through in real shop language. So are crank gear welding, cam retainers, piston protrusion targets, firing head gasket installation, head stud torque sequence, and valve lash strategy.

The break-in section is worth the entire runtime on its own. Proper cam break-in, why you do it without coolant in the block, how to track oil temp with an infrared gun, and why ring break-in requires load are all covered. The crew explains why babying a fresh built diesel causes glazing and oil consumption issues, and breaks down break-in oil, first oil change timing, and cutting open the filter to check for debris.

If you are wrenching in the garage and want to build a Cummins that lasts, subscribe on YouTube and follow the Power Driven Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Everything the guys talked about in this episode, including Morley bearings, assembly lube, and Power Driven Diesel oil, is available at PowerDriven.com. Links below.

Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com

If you have ever cracked open an engine block and wondered whether you are missing something the shop guys never talk about, this episode is for you. Todd, Will, and Myer break down the real hands-on engine building process, step by step, using their Myers UCC build as the backdrop for a conversation that covers everything from the stuff you check before you turn a wrench to the stuff that will bite you if you skip it.

The episode kicks off with oil galley plug inspection, what the guys call the oil rail, oil rifle, or oil passage depending on who is talking, and why making sure every one of those plugs is seated before assembly is a non-negotiable. They get into cleaning procedures using an engine bore brush kit to pull out machining particles and metal flakes from the cylinder bores and oil passages before anything goes back together.
Bearing clearances get a solid breakdown here. The guys walk through main bearings and rod bearings on a Cummins engine, explain why the oil holes in the bearings do not line up the way you might expect, and talk through what proper clearance looks like for street builds versus high RPM race applications. They also hit a detail that trips up a lot of first-time builders: rod caps are matched to their specific rod during the machining process, and swapping caps between rods will cost you roundness and likely an engine.

Cylinder wall prep takes up a good chunk of the conversation too. The guys reference using the Total Seal ring break-in compound to verify cleanliness, where green means the wall is ready and brown means you are not done yet. From there the discussion moves into piston ring gap, how they set the second ring at or slightly larger than the top ring, ring orientation during installation, and their experience running Total Seal gapless second rings at higher horsepower levels where piston land strength starts to become a real concern.

The back half of the episode covers assembly lube, specifically the Joe Gibbs Driven line and other black assembly greases the guys have had good results with, where to apply it and where not to, and the proper way to lube a camshaft, lifters, and cam lobes before the engine goes together. The cylinder head side of the build runs long and gets pushed to next week, so consider this Part 1 of a two-part deep look at what it actually takes to build a diesel engine the right way.

Subscribe on YouTube to catch Part 2 the moment it drops, and if you are listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Everything the guys talked about in this episode, rings, bearings, assembly products, all of it is the kind of stuff you can find at PowerDriven.com. If you are building an engine, start there.

Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com
0:00 Intro and Mars UCC engine build overview
1:18 Oil galley plugs and why they cannot be overlooked
2:30 Cleaning oil passages and cylinder bores
4:13 Main bearing installation and oil hole alignment
5:03 Measuring journals and bearing clearances
7:07 Cylinder wall prep and final cleaning order
10:00 Total Seal break-in compound and cylinder wall verification
10:35 Measuring rod journals, main journals, and bearings
12:30 Bearing clearance specs for street vs race applications
13:24 Why race clearances and thick oil do not work on a street truck
18:33 Rod cap and rod matching on Cummins and aftermarket rods
29:52 Piston ring clearance and piston wall clearance
31:42 Ring gap setup and second ring sizing
33:34 Ring orientation during installation
40:37 Total Seal gapless second ring discussion and high HP concerns
42:06 Loctite, fasteners, and oil galley plug sealing
49:15 Assembly grease selection and application
52:25 Camshaft and lifter lubrication
53:45 Episode wrap and Part 2 preview

Pistons are one of those parts everybody installs but not everybody actually understands. Todd, Will, and Myer break down piston design from top to bottom, and if you have ever wondered why there are so many options or which one belongs in your build, this is the episode you need.

They start with piston bowl design and why it matters more than most guys think. Narrow bowl versus wide bowl, reentrant versus non-reentrant, and how each design affects the way fuel and air mix inside a diesel cylinder. Because diesels fire fuel directly into that bowl at the very end of the compression stroke, bowl geometry has a direct impact on combustion quality, smoke, and power output in a way gasoline engines never have to deal with. Swirl numbers get covered too, and why that circular mixing motion plays a bigger role in emissions and haze than it does in outright peak power.

The conversation moves through piston options platform by platform. Common rail, 24 valve, VP44, and 12 valve all get their own breakdown. The guys talk about why they almost always steer people toward a narrow bowl for over-the-road use, but also when a wide bowl makes sense, like sled pulling and nitrous-limited classes where you are chasing every last horsepower.

Cast versus forged is a big chunk of this episode and the guys do not sugarcoat it. Forged pistons are stronger and handle RPM abuse better, but the increased wall clearance required, the wear characteristics, and the oil ring differences make them a poor choice for anything that sees regular street miles. They even mention their factory 6.7 cast pistons surviving a truck that averages 2200 horsepower down the track, and what that says about how capable a properly built cast piston really is.

The 12 valve guys get their section too. Stock pistons, the early first gen wider bowl swap, and why the shop has largely moved away from recommending low compression pistons now that six seven blocks are the go-to platform for high-output Cummins builds.

Piston coatings and cylinder honing round out the episode. The guys cover their coating experiments on Myer's race truck, what coatings can and cannot protect against, and why proper piston wall clearance is still the thing that determines whether any of it survives.

Subscribe on YouTube and follow the Power Driven Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you do not miss episodes like this one.

Everything from pistons to full build components for your diesel is available at PowerDriven.com. If anything from this episode sparks a build question, the team there can point you in the right direction.

Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com